Greetings from India

[whitepe]

Hi fellow FF'ers.
I have been in southern India in the city of
Hyderabad since Jan 15th. Going back to Illinoy
tomorrow the 21st.  Yesterday morning in the hotel
lobby I saw four Indian gentlemen with
CAT business shirts on.  Three of them from
CAT's facility in Bangalore, India and one from
the CAT dealership in Hyderabad.  It seems that
they were at the hotel making a presentation to sell
them a CAT genset.  Not surprised since the power
has gone off about 4 times this week.  Never more
than a minute or two but out none the less.
I will post some pics when I get back home as I do not
have access to a PC with a USB.
Weather here has been 75 to 80 F all week but it is going
to warm up soon.  March/April highs get to 120 F.

[Mark M]

Hi Perry

I've never been to India but would like to go there sometime. I do communicate with a person at the Cat dealer's oil lab there but can remember where they are located.

Let us know when you have pictures.

Mark

[Tom]

Do they run all the motels over there too?

[Bro. Noble]

Tom   :D  That was a good one   :D

Perry,

I assume that you had an uneventful,  ho-hum,  flight ;)

[whitepe]

My trip to India started on Jan 13 when I left Peoria.
The flight route was Peo. - Chicago - London - Dubai, United  Arab Emirates - Hyderabad, India.  
The trip over was an eventful one.   Fortunately the return trip was not quite as exciting.  To read more about getting to India see these following news stories on BBC news.
I will expound on the story if anyone is interested.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3398181.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3396667.stm

I have begun to get a few photos uploaded to my albums
on --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!--.  The hard drive on my computer was croaked when I got home so I didn't get it fixed until today (Jan 25th) as my son had 3 basketball games this weekend.
Friday night, Sat. morning and Sat evening.
Jeremiah and I are bachelors as Becky left for Germany
friday.  She was supposed to go through munich to dusseldorf but weather in Chicago took her through
copenhagen, denmark and she arrived 7 hours later than
planned.


Here's a link to the album for the india trip.
I will add more photos shortly. It takes forever with a --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!--.com/album/11966111VlzRUmFofQ

[whitepe]

Tom,
Yup, they run the motels there too!     :D
I stayed at a hotel called the Green Park in hyderabad.
It took me three days to figure out that the mini rolls
of toilet paper were for drying only as I had not noticed
the sprayer on a hose (like a kitchen sink sprayer)
was for cleaning your back side.
Other than that,  I thought I was staying in Embassy
Suites.  About 4000 rupees per night.  ~$85 U.S.

[whitepe]

Here's CNN's version of the incident.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/01/14/heathrow.arrest/index.html

[Mark M]

So then Perry, did they strip search everyone when they found that fella? I always hate it when that happens. ;)

[whitepe]

Negatory on the strip search but here's what they did.
They had about 30 security people working the gate.
All carryon re-xrayed at the gate,
Another walk through metal detector at the gate.
Hand held wand metal detector at the gate
Frisked at the gate.
Carryon luggage hand searched.
Carryon luggage swabbed for an ion scan
Carryon luggage sniffed by dogs.
4 or 5 police with automatic weapons at the gate.
Also,  in the hallway out side the gate,
all dark haired men were taken away for separate
questioning before being allowed back to the gate area.

All in all,   rather nerve wracking.
We didn't know much until we saw it on bbcnews
on the tv's on the plane an hour into the flight.